Consumers miss fine print, promise first-born child to Wi-Fi company

When you sign up for cable or Internet service, just what are you agreeing to? A lot. You could be forfeiting your legal rights and plenty of money — and in one extreme case, promising them your first-born child.

In June, a handful of people unknowingly agreed to give up their first-born child “for the duration of eternity” in exchange for free Wi-Fi. As an experiment designed to highlight Wi-Fi security issues, security firm F-Secure offered free Wi-Fi in London, but to get it, consumers had to agree to a “Herod clause,” in which the recipient would give the company their first born; six Londoners signed on (33 others signed up for the free Wi-Fi once the terms and conditions were removed). While this likely wouldn’t be legally binding — and the company doesn’t intend to enforce it — it goes to show that some people aren’t reading the fine print.

Of course, this is an experiment — and likely a non-legally binding one at that — but the reality is that many people don’t read the fine print before signing up for Internet and cable services, which can have very real, and legally binding, financial and emotional consequences. “In a lot of places consumers have little or no choice about what cable company they go with, so cable companies feel like they can add in one-sided terms [to their service agreements],” says Scott Michelman, an attorney for Public Citizen. And they often get away with it, he says, “because almost no one reads the fine print.”

Here are some of the things cable and Internet companies bury in the fine print that consumers should consider.

We overcharged you? You’ll likely eat that fee.

Some cable companies, including Time Warner CableUS:TWC
, have an “aggressive” policy that says you only have 30 days to dispute your bill, says Michelman; after that period, you “will waive any right to (in other words, you will not be eligible to receive) a refund or credit.” “That is an extremely short amount of time — many errors will escape consumers’ notice within that time,” he says — especially since thousands of consumers do auto-pay and many others don’t even glance at their bill until right before the due date and even then don’t go through it thoroughly. And he adds that since billing disputes are among the most common issues consumers face, this is a provision that’s extremely unfriendly to consumers. ComcastCMCSA, -1.30%
and Verizon FiOSVZ, -0.19%
also have short dispute periods, though theirs are both 60 days. Jenni Moyer, a spokesperson for Comcast, said in April that “this is standard and as a practical matter we work with our customers.” Eric Mangan, a spokesperson for Time Warner Cable said in April that “customers can still come to us past 30 days if they want to dispute their bill” and that “if we made an error, we’ll correct their bill.” Verizon has not yet responded.

We can cancel your favorite channels and charge you more — without telling you first.

If you’re like most Americans, you only watch a handful of (beloved) channels from the myriad choices provided to you. Just don’t get too attached to them, as some cable companies reserve the right to get rid of any channels and services — and change their rates and fees — without telling you first. Comcast, for example, reserves “the right to change our Service(s), Xfinity Equipment and rates or charges, at any time with or without notice.” It also reserves the right to “rearrange, delete, add to, or otherwise change programming or features or offerings…including but not limited to content, functionality, hours of availability, customer equipment requirements, speed” and more. Comcast’s Moyer said in April that often this is a good thing: For example, the company has increased its high-speed Internet speeds 13 times in the past 12 years and this language allows them to do that without having to get every customers’ buy in.

Your cable’s been out for hours? Don’t expect a refund.

As anyone who’s ever stared despondently at a red-blinking light on their router knows, there are plenty of failures with cable and Internet service and equipment — and the companies know this. Time Warner Cable’s fine print says that its services “are not guaranteed to work” or “to be error- or- virus-free” and both Time Warner and Verizon say that their services are provided “on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis.” Time Warner Cable’s Mangan said in April that this language “reflects the fact that we live in a physical world in which things beyond our control disrupt services.” Verizon has not responded to request for comment.

Comcast notes that its services are “not fail-safe” and that the company “shall not be liable for any inconvenience, loss, liability of damage resulting from any interruption of service” for a list of roughly two dozen causes including signal failure of transmitters or satellites (Verizon has a similar list of causes for which you cannot get a refund); and if your outage was caused by something they deem legit, you can only get a credit if you lost service for more than 24 hours (never mind that the outage happened just when you needed to email your boss that presentation) and request a credit within 60 days. Comcast’s Moyer said that this is “standard contractual language” and that Comcast has a customer guarantee that focuses on the quality of the relationship with the consumers and that it strives to meet customer expectations.

You may have to pay our legal fees and expenses — even if you’re not the one suing us.

Sometimes cable companies pop a clause into a contract that would force consumers to pay their legal fees and expenses — even if the consumer isn’t the one directly suing them. Time Warner includes a provision that says that “if a third party sues us based on your use of our services, equipment or software…you will indemnify us (in other words reimburse us) for any losses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, that we suffer.” Time Warner Cable’s Mangan said that this language “speaks for itself” and that he doesn’t think this situation has occurred.

Here’s how that might play out: Let’s say that someone claims copyright infringement based on something you posted online and sues the cable company for enabling that to happen; that could mean you’re on the hook for the cable company’s expenses related to defending the case. Even if the cable company wins the case, based on this language, they still could demand payment (for example, if the cable company gets the case dismissed but is out of pocket for their attorneys’ fees), explains Michelman. “This has the possibility to impose a lot of hidden costs on the consumer,” says Michelman. But, he adds, he isn’t sure how frequently cable companies are sued for their users’ activities.

Want to sue us? Fat chance.

A number of cable companies, including Time Warner Cable and Verizon, include a mandatory arbitration clause in their terms of service, which sometimes prevents consumers from taking the company to court and instead forces them into arbitration to resolve any dispute. “This forces you to waive legal rights,” says Michelman. This is particularly problematic for consumers, he says, because arbitrators have an incentive to keep the cable companies happy since they are repeat customers (while a consumer likely isn’t). A jury may be more sympathetic to a case than an arbitrator; and decisions made in arbitration are hard to overturn even when mistakes are made.

Some cable companies like Time Warner do include an opt-out provision for the arbitration clause, but Michelman points out that it is “very limited,” as you must notify them in writing within 30 days of the date you became subject to the provision. Most people, of course, don’t even realize they are subject to this, and once you’ve been a customer for a while, you’ve likely already waived your right by not explicitly opting out. Time Warner Cable’s Mangan says that the company makes it “very clear on page 1 of the agreement and also later within the agreement that customers can always choose to opt out.”

The companies often also forbid you from banding together with other consumers to form a class-action lawsuit. Furthermore, a number of the companies forbid consumers from bringing a claim against them if the relevant event happened more than a year ago. “The problem with this provision is that every state has a statute of limitations [on claims] and it’s usually more than a year,” says Michelman. “In setting it at one year as a default, the cable company is essentially trying to contract around the judgment of the legislature about what a reasonable time period is.”

This story was originally published on April 29, 2014, and updated on Sept. 29, 2014.

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